Following allegations that improper photos of squad members were illegally circulated by coaches via email, former Washington Football Team cheerleaders are requesting the NFL release the full findings of its inquiry into team culture — in light of a previously unreleased report.
The photos, which were unveiled in emails published by the New York Times on Monday, show Gruden using derogatory terms like “rubes,” “huns” and “faggots.” Gruden quit his job the following morning.
According to WFT cheerleaders, who spoke with the Daily Beast Tuesday, Gruden circulated emails showing topless cheerleaders from a previous swimsuit photoshoot video.
Gruden, at the time, was an ESPN color commentator, and Allen had hired his brother Jay Gruden to coach the team.
According to the Washington Post, in 2020, WFT executives were allegedly instructed to take behind-the-scenes footage at the swimsuit photoshoot, package it together into a video with just “the good parts” — reportedly of bare nipples and pubic areas as cheerleaders changed clothes or moved about – and send it to team owner Daniel Snyder
On Tuesday, attorneys for 40 former WFT workers released a statement demanding that the NFL release all of its findings.
Despite being “the actual victims” of the situation, cheerleaders such as Candass Correll, a WFT member from 2016 to 2021, told the Daily Beast that they have not seen the investigation report or results despite being “the actual victims.”
“If it wasn’t for [the New York Times article,] we would’ve never known that those pictures were going through the mail servers between these two really important people in the NFL,” she stated.
A former Raider cheerleader, Lacy Thibodeaux-Fields, said the latest email controversy involving Gruden was more proof of a longstanding problem. “misogynistic, racist, very sexist culture.”
Too, she called for the report’s release in its entirety.
